Ah dear hearts, what a week. Sending out great admiration and appreciation of the Egyptian Revolution overthrowing a corrupt and cruel regime with non-violent tactics, beauty, song and dance and a social networking that one can only dream of.
Revolution on Friday, into Lincoln's Birthday on Saturday and today it's all about the love. My parents are celebrating their 52nd wedding anniversary in Heaven It's my brother's 14th wedding anniversary and My wife and I are celebrating our 4th. Romance runs in the family.
I saw the Egyptian revolution as a love thing as well. That popular uprising had so much love and faith and courage. Did you see how they cared and protected each other? Yes, they have triumphed. Watching this unfold over the last three weeks was a privilege and a duty, or as Obama would say "a teachable moment". What did we learn? We learned that there is an exciting youth movement in the world. That young minds adept at cyber communication are using it to advance freedom and democracy all across the Arab world. We learned that even when "they" send in government thugs demonstrators must remain calm and non-violent. We learned that what seems impossible is only so in our minds. The power of collective cooperation is unstoppable.
The underlying causes of the Egyptian revolution were the thirty years of oppression and dictatorship, the immediate cause was the self immolation of a vegetable vendor in Tunisia who set himself on fire in protest of Failed economic policies and hopelessness. this sparked the revolt in Tunisia and spread like wildfire into Egypt. They say Yemen, Iran, Jordan, Algeria and Syria are poised on the precipice of revolution as well. I say huzzah. In'shallah, That means God willing, or Allah willing.
People wonder if the same kind of popular revolt could happen here, what with the unemployment rate, unprecedented foreclosures, food and gas prices going up, the gutting of the US economy by corporate raiders in cahoots with the Feds. People are scared and angry, but the likely hood of a non-violent overthrow of the gov't doesn't seem destined for us. Why? We'll first and foremost one of the key factors to the success of Egypt's revolution was the fact that they were all Egyptians. Egypt is not a "melting Pot" like the U.S. supposedly is. We are not one people.
We don't care for each other or pretend to love each other in America. Class and Racial divisions are dangerous, mean, violent and resentful. The power of unity/similarity like mindedness common ground is essential for that kind of victory. We have nothing like that in this country.
The other extremely obvious difference is that our civilian population is armed to the teeth. 287 million guns. The Egyptians were unarmed. They did have knives and used them for self defense and defending their neighborhoods, business, hospitals and so on. But they did not have a civilian army protected by a 2nd Amendment.
The other key to their success was the alliance of the military, love if you will. That was one of the most moving images coming across the screen of this popular movement; People sitting on tanks sitting in the street and the soldiers being gifted flowers and food. Can you envision that kind of accord here? I don't think so. Americans are estranged,suspicious, polarized and looking for an excuse to blow each others heads off. So what happens next?
We ignite an American revolution of self respect and love, using social networking tools, we search for the ever allusive common ground.. How do we solicit that kind of fundamental transformation. We start with ourselves. Today is a perfect day to fall in love with yourself. Sure send your sweetheart some chocolate, but give yourself some flowers too and a great big hug and lots of kisses. Call your answering machine and leave yourself a message, everything you want to hear and promise to cherish yourself forever. That could be the key to world's liberation. Because we all know Love makes the world go round in a what? In a revolution.
Showing posts with label Egyptian Revolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Egyptian Revolution. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Winds of Change/Walk Like an Egyptian
The winds of change are blowing. Do you feel them? It's inevitable, Everything has been stacked so high with little infrastructure, it all must fall. Remember Yertle the Turtle? There is this underlying tense expectation today because we all know on some level that we are experiencing an acceleration of change, a climax if you will, both natural and man made.
And as we look to the East to our Arab and Egyptian Brothers and sisters. What began in Tunisia has blossomed into the most exciting dramatic display of transformation in human revolution and we are so fortunate to be able to witness this catharsis through the power of the internet. Presente!
How beautiful are these Brown faces flashing peace signs, sweeping up trash, singing, dancing. Seeing the women empowered in the street thrilled to express themselves alongside their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons. This is a good sign. Until the intervention of the financially backed Pro-Mubarack mobs we were giddy with pride and hope for the actualization of a non-violent revolution organized in the Streets and on Facebook and twitter.
The symbiosis between the social networking and social activism today is a priceless addition to our progress into a promising future. The silent majority are finding the strengths of a medium that can be extra large. Even as the Dictator ship of Egypt tired to disrupt the internet broadcast of the crackdown on non-violent protestors and journalists, images, stories and audio still leaked into our hands. When the say the whole world is watching they are not kidding, not only is the whole world watching the whole world is witnessing and thinking and comparing our own very precarious positions. As it becomes more glaringly obvious that what we have here is a struggle between the World's rich Corporate Governments and the poor.
American people pay the government through taxes, as though they work for us. And they do, but They then spend all our money on a few social programs but a whole hell of a lot on it on things we said not to invest in, like wars and propping up a banking industry. Now they are telling the people who have worked really hard their whole lives they must work a little longer and endure austerity programs as they shred the social fabric. This is True in so many countries. Like the US; Ireland, Greece, Spain, and Britain. Total financial mismanagement. Then their are countries like Tunisia, Iran, Yemen, Like Egypt. Not only have government officials wasted and stolen money, and completely overindulged themselves, but some have oppressed the civil society through brutality,
So the people are idle, nervous, frightened, broke, with not even enough money for food. When people are hungry and there is food on the shelves but the people can't afford it; There's going to be unrest and uprisings.The revolution in Egypt is a direct response.
The Egyptian people are calling for change,yes, but the change in heads of government is not going to provide them with jobs or money or lower food prices. It appears we cannot rely on the patriarchal system of one leader of a government. It's over. There's got to be a better way.
The majority of The people of the world are good. Most have worked their whole lives to provide a home, food, education, safety, but it is the government assisted by the military that have dominated our lives, stripped us of our precious resources and have feathered their own nests while foreclosing on ours.
As I watch the Egyptians in the streets, doing their best to maintain their dignity and exercise their human rights I long for more signs of solidarity ( I'll make one) and decentralized leadership. The Egyptians are saying this, We take better care of each other than our government.
Governments have failed to advance with the times as far as employment They want to rely on Manufacturing, but, it's over. Our earthly resources are entirely depleted not to mention the cultures who sit on top of them. We must accept the end of the industrial age. Now, We have our selves thoroughly planted in the Age of Technology, but what they haven't figured out is how to manufacture new sustainable jobs instead of robotize the ones we have left. We must find a way for a family today to earn a living an survive.
There are two ways I see going; One is back to the small family farms, like the Heifer International Model. Just getting a chicken coop is a bright beginning. And together we could usher in the age community organizing and of recycling. taking all of our manufacturing infrastructure and using it all to remake, recycle. That takes care of employment and our never talked about garbage crisis. (Like taking those trillion plastic water bottles filling them with some pebbles and making musical rattles). We call for an artistic recycling economy, Shift the paradigm. This is not just a solution for us, but for the whole world. Change isn't easy, Whether it be on the economy, climate, human rights, change is coming. So let the winds blow and fill our sails.
And as we look to the East to our Arab and Egyptian Brothers and sisters. What began in Tunisia has blossomed into the most exciting dramatic display of transformation in human revolution and we are so fortunate to be able to witness this catharsis through the power of the internet. Presente!
How beautiful are these Brown faces flashing peace signs, sweeping up trash, singing, dancing. Seeing the women empowered in the street thrilled to express themselves alongside their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons. This is a good sign. Until the intervention of the financially backed Pro-Mubarack mobs we were giddy with pride and hope for the actualization of a non-violent revolution organized in the Streets and on Facebook and twitter.
The symbiosis between the social networking and social activism today is a priceless addition to our progress into a promising future. The silent majority are finding the strengths of a medium that can be extra large. Even as the Dictator ship of Egypt tired to disrupt the internet broadcast of the crackdown on non-violent protestors and journalists, images, stories and audio still leaked into our hands. When the say the whole world is watching they are not kidding, not only is the whole world watching the whole world is witnessing and thinking and comparing our own very precarious positions. As it becomes more glaringly obvious that what we have here is a struggle between the World's rich Corporate Governments and the poor.
American people pay the government through taxes, as though they work for us. And they do, but They then spend all our money on a few social programs but a whole hell of a lot on it on things we said not to invest in, like wars and propping up a banking industry. Now they are telling the people who have worked really hard their whole lives they must work a little longer and endure austerity programs as they shred the social fabric. This is True in so many countries. Like the US; Ireland, Greece, Spain, and Britain. Total financial mismanagement. Then their are countries like Tunisia, Iran, Yemen, Like Egypt. Not only have government officials wasted and stolen money, and completely overindulged themselves, but some have oppressed the civil society through brutality,
So the people are idle, nervous, frightened, broke, with not even enough money for food. When people are hungry and there is food on the shelves but the people can't afford it; There's going to be unrest and uprisings.The revolution in Egypt is a direct response.
The Egyptian people are calling for change,yes, but the change in heads of government is not going to provide them with jobs or money or lower food prices. It appears we cannot rely on the patriarchal system of one leader of a government. It's over. There's got to be a better way.
The majority of The people of the world are good. Most have worked their whole lives to provide a home, food, education, safety, but it is the government assisted by the military that have dominated our lives, stripped us of our precious resources and have feathered their own nests while foreclosing on ours.
As I watch the Egyptians in the streets, doing their best to maintain their dignity and exercise their human rights I long for more signs of solidarity ( I'll make one) and decentralized leadership. The Egyptians are saying this, We take better care of each other than our government.
Governments have failed to advance with the times as far as employment They want to rely on Manufacturing, but, it's over. Our earthly resources are entirely depleted not to mention the cultures who sit on top of them. We must accept the end of the industrial age. Now, We have our selves thoroughly planted in the Age of Technology, but what they haven't figured out is how to manufacture new sustainable jobs instead of robotize the ones we have left. We must find a way for a family today to earn a living an survive.
There are two ways I see going; One is back to the small family farms, like the Heifer International Model. Just getting a chicken coop is a bright beginning. And together we could usher in the age community organizing and of recycling. taking all of our manufacturing infrastructure and using it all to remake, recycle. That takes care of employment and our never talked about garbage crisis. (Like taking those trillion plastic water bottles filling them with some pebbles and making musical rattles). We call for an artistic recycling economy, Shift the paradigm. This is not just a solution for us, but for the whole world. Change isn't easy, Whether it be on the economy, climate, human rights, change is coming. So let the winds blow and fill our sails.
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