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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 27, 2011 16:33:15 GMT
Yemen joins Egypt and Tunisia in the protests against dictatorshipBeirut, By iloubnan.info | January 27, 2011The Tunisian revolution who ousted president Ben Ali inspires a wind of revolution in all the Arab world.
Yesterday, a second day of demonstration happened in Egypt and resulted in the death of two more people, six since the beginning of the demonstrations Tuesday. These demonstration, forbidden by the Moubarak regime are directly inspired from what happened in Tunisia: “Moubarak, get out!; After Ben Ali, who's next?; Tunisia is the solution” shouted thousands of people in the street of Cairo.
This Thursday, a new country joint the protests. Yemen saw thousands of people hitting the streets asking the President Saleh to leave. A coalition of political forces from the opposition organised several gatherings in the capitol city according to AFP reporter.
Yemen is also directly inspired from the tunisian revolution. “Ben Ali went out after 20 years, 30 years in Yemen is enough” shouted the demonstrators while carrying roses as a sign of protest.source: www.iloubnan.info/politics/actualite/id/55096/titre/Yemen-joins-Egypt-and-Tunisia-in-the-protests-against-dictatorship Site has a ticker tape feature.Interesting article from The Vancouver Sun, titled "Tunisia revolt undermining Arab regimes: Analysts": www.vancouversun.com/technology/Tunisia+revolt+undermining+Arab+regimes+Analysts/4177913/story.htmlReported less than an hour ago: A tweet from Al Jazeera reporter Dima Khatib: Demos in Yemen were organised by opposition parties in Sanaa and other cities of Yemen. They have ended now.That source has video: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/01/scenes-from-yemen.html
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 28, 2011 16:15:43 GMT
I thought this article was most interesting. It's titled Seizing a Moment, Al Jazeera Galvanizes Arab Frustration. Like many other people, I use Al Jazeera as a source against which to check facts and attitudes as they're reported in my native country's press. It's a longish article, and leads off this way: The protests rocking the Arab world this week have one thread uniting them: Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite channel whose aggressive coverage has helped propel insurgent emotions from one capital to the next.
Al Jazeera has been widely hailed for helping enable the revolt in Tunisia with its galvanizing early reports, even as Western-aligned political factions in Lebanon and the West Bank attacked and burned the channel’s offices and vans this week, accusing it of incitement against them.
In many ways, it is Al Jazeera’s moment — not only because of the role it has played, but also because the channel has helped to shape a narrative of popular rage against oppressive American-backed Arab governments (and against Israel) ever since its founding 15 years ago.Click HERE to read the whole thing. Interesting stuff.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2011 18:29:06 GMT
Just wondering -- who gets Al Jazeera and/or Al Jazeera English on their cable or satellite service besides me?
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 29, 2011 8:05:46 GMT
I'd get it if I used the other provider. As soon as I move I'm going to change.
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Post by bjd on Jan 29, 2011 8:57:13 GMT
I do --through my internet connection box. I was watching the live coverage from Egypt last night. Just had a look this morning but the English version was talking about Berlusconi. The Arab version was about Egypt -- I understood Mubarak but nothing else.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 29, 2011 19:12:46 GMT
But do you all agree with the premise that it was Al Jazeera's reporting that encouraged dissidents in different country to follow Tunisia with large-scale protests?
Does anyone know in which countries, if any, Al Jazeera is blocked?
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Post by mich64 on Jan 29, 2011 19:34:21 GMT
I have never tried to make a connection with Al Jazeera. I think I will try today to see what I can get on the internet to see if I can see their coverage of events. It is not an option on my cable selections where I live in Canada.
I have come to understand that the networks do take political sides, no matter how much they try to stay balanced, the older I have gotten the less naive, and hoping not cynical, I have become. Some balance better than others and seem to honestly try to stay neutral. I can tell which are Democratic and which are Republican in the USA and here in Canada which are Liberal backed or Tory backed. Even the commercials/sponsors help you to determine the sides chosen.
I believe the networks do have a huge influence on the public and can instigate/push them into demonstrations and that is not their role in society. Mich
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Post by bjd on Jan 29, 2011 19:44:35 GMT
There was an article in today's paper about Al Jazeera being either "hailed or hated" in the various Arab countries.
I find it difficult to believe that a TV station would have enough influence to get thousands of people out on the street demonstrating and calling for their president to step down. There is much more to it than that. I think it's just another case of wishful thinking -- get rid of Al Jazeera and everything will be just fine again.
Of course, I don't know what they say on the Arab version, but I have been watching the English language site and I find their commentary extremely interesting and knowledgeable. The journalists seem to be either Australian or English or have American accents when they have Arabic names. They also have interviews and reports from Washington. Yesterday they showed the press conference by the White House spokesman (couldn't Obama find someone who didn't say uh between each word?).
I had a quick look at the French news tonight and they were using the same videos as Al Jazeera but talked much more about Islamist influence and participation.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 30, 2011 0:42:19 GMT
You both make interesting points. I agree with Mich about networks having a great deal of influence on the public, but I don't know if that's because they're preaching to the choir in so many cases.
I agree with Bjd that it's hard to feature a tv station with enough influence to trigger the massive demonstrations we're talking about here.
But the sentence in the first article quoted, that Al Jazeera's "...aggressive coverage has helped propel insurgent emotions from one capital to the next.", seems reasonable.
The "insurgent emotions", whether conveyed by man in the street interviews or by "aggressive coverage" of actual demonstrations -- which would include delving into the causes of discontent -- would certainly have been picked up on by other populations with similar grievances.
But I think there is a big difference between access to news of action elsewhere finally galvanizing people to also demonstrate, and a tv channel actually influencing them to do so.
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 30, 2011 11:41:41 GMT
I just read on Spiegel Online (one of the more objective German newssites), that Al Jazeera has lost its license in Egypt and that their reporters have had their accreditations canceled.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2011 11:45:47 GMT
Yes, Egypt has shut down Al Jazeera. And Cairo airport has closed, although evacuation flights for the UK, Germany, France and Turkey will take place tomorrow. The U.S. has chartered some planes also, to fly citizens at least to Europe.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2011 15:18:41 GMT
On the midday news in France, the correspondent in Cairo had to give his report from a windowless studio, because the army said that they don't want live street scenes to be shown anymore.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 30, 2011 15:19:12 GMT
Independent Newspaper today
"The crowds are very pro-army. I fimed an amazing moment when a charismatic one-star general addressed the public and spoke of the importance of maintaining public order. People kept shouting 'Are you with or against Mubarak?' He answered that his mission is making sure that looting stops, and that the issue of who governs is the peoples' decision, not the army's, and that government should be civilian'
Issandr Al Amrani"
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 30, 2011 17:23:35 GMT
You all are my up-to-date news now, since you are so many hours ahead of me. When I open the NYTimes that's delivered to my email, that news is already stale. Thanks! I think everyone will be interested in this article: For the first time in a generation, it is not religion, nor the adventures of a single leader, nor wars with Israel that have energized the region. Across Egypt and the Middle East, a somewhat nostalgic notion of a common Arab identity, intersecting with a visceral sense of what amounts to a decent life, is driving protests that have bound the region in a sense of a shared destiny.It's a very good and incisive article, with photos and video: www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/world/middleeast/30arab.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2011 21:22:26 GMT
I keep checking the Egyptian internet regularly to see if it is working again, but no luck so far. Anybody who wants to try as well can click at random on the site of Cairo International Airport: www.cairo-airport.com
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Post by gertie on Feb 11, 2011 2:52:24 GMT
Odd, my understanding from my reading and watching various news was the protests in Egypt were organized via Facebook, hence why they blacked out internet in Egypt. Here is an interesting report on how some of the organization was achieved. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8317055/Egypt-crisis-the-young-revolutionaries-who-sparked-the-protests.htmlI see today President Mubarak has made some speech vaguely transferring power to Vice President Omar Suleiman. Lots of fuss about whether the Muslim Brotherhood will take control there. Lots of whining from various parties about the possibility the military will take over in a coup. I have to say my first thought when reading most of the commentary is...why is Obama in charge of telling the Egyptians how to do things? I think we should let them work it out among themselves. Can you imagine if we had a protest develop here in Obamaland? Those poor young peaceful protesters would be lucky to have survived the first day, and the army and national guard would have clamped down on the city within the first 10 hours. At this point, the survivors would probably be on the boat to Gitmo, or at least locked behind bars for the rest of their natural lives as terrorist threats to homeland security.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2011 17:42:10 GMT
Today's candidates are Algeria and Yemen, which are both having demonstrations. Living in France, I would of course like to see Algeria improve, since there are more than 3 million Algerians here (and countless more of Algerian heritage), so that would be good for us, too. Algerians are notorious for being bad-tempered here, whereas Moroccans and Tunisians smile a lot more.
Then again, Yemen is far more important for blowing the winds of change in the zone that needs it the most. Since the PDR of Yemen was a communist country before the reunification with the Yemen Arab Republic in 1990, there can be hope that there is an advanced political conscience in the region.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 12, 2011 17:50:06 GMT
Does the government Yemen at least still have vestiges of the kinds of benevolent social consciousness associated with communism?
I can't figure out from what I read whether or not Yemen ever formally renounced communism as its form of government.
Their President Saleh seems to have many parallels with Mubarak, not least that of time in office.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2011 17:53:46 GMT
It was basically the non communist Yemen (Sanaa) that absorbed the communist Yemen (Aden).
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 12, 2011 18:04:49 GMT
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Post by gertie on Feb 12, 2011 19:08:15 GMT
Think we'll be stuck with that "war on terror" thing for a good while, they're still using it to justify a lot of policies and spending.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 13, 2011 14:22:41 GMT
Things in Yemen are not calming down: Yemeni protesters march on palace <-- clickThe last paragraph of that article speaks volumes about sources of unrest: Yemen's opposition wants assurances that reforms would be implemented and has demanded better living conditions for Yemenis, about 40 percent of whom live on less than $2 a day, while a third suffer from chronic hunger.Times are less tough for others whose conditions at home became a little uncomfortable: Emirates' exiles in spotlight after Mubarak fall <-- click
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2011 19:45:22 GMT
We had our first visitor from Libya today. Can the revolution be far away?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2011 13:42:48 GMT
Aha.... the wind is blowing in Benghazi... and Bahrain, Tehran, Amman and Sanaa....
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Post by bjd on Feb 17, 2011 8:33:26 GMT
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Post by gertie on Feb 17, 2011 15:28:19 GMT
Perhaps a bit later for Pyongyang. There is still the eventual passing of power on to the son. Perhaps that will be a better time for the people to have their say.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 17, 2011 16:32:27 GMT
I really like this columnist, who is in Bahrain right now. Reading it, you'll be struck by the same things that stood out in the Tunisian and Egyptian protests. That is, how the motivations for the protests are so completely reasonable, and how the reactions of those in power prove the reasonableness of those motivations. www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/opinion/17kristof.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212It also strikes me how people who have always lived under a monarchy really do seem to accept it as heaven-ordained.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2011 18:46:53 GMT
I vote for Libya as the next candidate. After all, it is directly between Tunisia and Egypt. And really, 42 years of Qadhafi is more than enough.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2011 18:21:25 GMT
Al Jazeera is really grim tonight with all of the deaths in Bahrain and Libya.
They are saying, however, that the Libyan regime has a greater chance of being toppled... but there is no one to lead the country.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2011 22:15:41 GMT
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