Listening to President Mubarak's speech. He's not starting off very well, imo.
People seem to forget that corruption takes money out of the system thus leaving less for jobs. Corruption on a massive scale certainly leads to higher unemployment and maybe even a recession as is the case with the US Wall Street corruption which led to the financial crisis and higher unemployment.
That sounded extremely defensive and clueless.
@JPB,
Quote:That sounded extremely defensive and clueless..
Ya...I dont see that working..
CNN online ran live streaming of the propaganda run in Egypt after the speech...it would have had Goebbels beaming...However I have serious doubts that the audience was buying..
@Finn dAbuzz,
Finn dAbuzz wrote:
revelette wrote:
boy, finn, I don't think I have read such a gloom and doom and somewhat offensive in language post from you before. What gives?
When I look at the images of all the people in Egypt exercising rights we take for granted, I just see it as a positive thing regardless if they have a plan for what is next or not. Apparently, all those people know what they had and they don't want it anymore. When we first started our country I doubt the "founding fathers" had all the answers either.
Offensive language?
Do you mean the use of "wogs?" That was intended as parody, and not meant to offend. . . .
I was wondering about that, too.
@Finn dAbuzz,
Back to this later, but I wanted to highlight one section...
Quote:Only in Jordan and Egypt do majorities of Muslims say there is no struggle between modernizers and Islamic fundamentalists in their countries. About seven-in-ten (72%) Jordanian Muslims and 61% of Egyptian Muslims offer this opinion; just 20% and 31%, respectively, see a struggle in their countries. In both of these countries, however, Muslims are now more likely than they were in 2009 to say there is a struggle; a year ago, 14% of Muslims in Jordan and 22% in Egypt saw a struggle in their countries.
Among Muslims who see a struggle between modernizers and Islamic fundamentalists, majorities in Lebanon (84%), Turkey (74%), Pakistan (61%) and Indonesia (54%) side with those who want to modernize their countries; a plurality of Jordanian Muslims who say there is a struggle in their country also side with the modernizers (48%). In Egypt and Nigeria, however, most Muslims who see a struggle in their countries say they identify with Islamic fundamentalists (59% and 58%, respectively).
@JPB,
Something doesn't seem right about that poll.
@JPB,
OK but you'll have to explain why you want to highlight it.
@realjohnboy,
Like what?
The source is reputable: Pew
@realjohnboy,
Not sure what you're seeing, rjb, but it says that 31% of the Egyptians surveyed believe there is a struggle between the modernizers and the fundamentalists and 58% of that 31% (or 18% overall) support the fundamentalist position in that struggle.
@Finn dAbuzz,
Pew is reputable. I'll try to look at it more closely later, as I gather, will be JPB.
I think the poll may have been of Muslims vs the general population.
@JPB,
It does clearly show that there is an increase in the number of people who think there is such a struggle.
@realjohnboy,
realjohnboy wrote:I think the poll may have been of Muslims vs the general population.
I think so, too. According to the CIA World Fact Book, 90% of the population in Egypt is Muslim. 9% Coptic, 1% Christian.
@realjohnboy,
True -- only two of the tables/graphs in the survey are based on the full sample or non-Muslim subgroups.
From the Guardian:
9.47pm GMT: We have fresh audio from the Guardian's Jack Shenker, who listened to Mubarak's speech among the crowd in Tahrir Square:
"People were bursting with hostility, many people held up their shoes in the air, which is, as you probably know, is one of the gravest insults you can show people in Arab culture, and as he announced that he would not be running in the September elections many of those shoes were hurled at the screen."
9.40pm GMT: Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League and a likely presidential candidate, is speaking to CNN, saying that there should now be a debate over whether Mubarak's offers in tonight's speech are enough to satisfy the protesters' demands. But it sounds like he thinks they are.
"I believe that this is something new that has been offered and it should be considered carefully," Moussa says, mentioning the limits on presidential terms and the new election laws raised by Mubarak.
Asked if he will run for the presidency in September's elections, Moussa replies: "Yes I will think about it seriously in the next few weeks."
From the Telegraph
"He humiliated us for 30 years, now we want to humiliate him" - Amar al Zoghy, a protester in Tahrir Square, Cairo.
21:30 In Cairo's central Tahrir Square, protesters said Mr Mubarak's concession was not enough and they want him to leave now. They shouted that he should not be allowed the graceful exit he seeks.
10:07pm: The major opposition parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood, say they have rejected the offers made by Mubarak tonight, according to Ivan Watson of CNN.
And to confirm earlier suggestions, MSNBC cable news confirms that Mubarak's speech tonight was taped, not live. Where Mubarak was at the time is anyone's guess, although most educated guesses put him in Sharm el-Sheikh.
10.04pm GMT: It sounds as if plans are being made for another massive protest, this time at the Presidential Palace in Cairo, possibly taking place on Friday.
