Honestly, I shall be posting some more serious stuff later, but I am a bit preoccupied at the moment.

For those keen on iconography, note the Benediction given by the Infant Christ. The hand gesture is similar to that demanded by Old Believers in Russia.

Useless information: the pronoun “them” is actually from Old Norse. Southern dialect Old and Middle English used the word “hem”… the expression “Up and at ‘em” may be a remnant of that usage… Londoners never being very good wiv their ‘aitches…

Cort blimey, g’vnor, strike a bleedin’ light.

I am working for a certifiable lunatic who has now taken to threatening the lives of my wife and children.

We need to get out now. This is no joke.

This is the place my wife is from, her home. Where the village grows up around the baobab tree and it itself is home to the local jinn who direct the fortunes of the people below. Women, until very recently, often went about semi-naked, with no rules about covering breasts or hair. Islam was more or less a veneer and new articulation of far older, indeed age-old things. Iron workers regarded with awe and as invested with magic, shuyukh mixing up spells and making talismans, the call to prayer comes, is answered and the village jinn are also in their turn propitiated.

Within the last few generations many of my wife’s tribe have settled down. Some still migrate around the desert with their flocks of camels and sheep in search of water and fodder, but they are fewer. Supposedly we own camels, my wife and I – or at least we should be able to redeem some from their owner, a relative, should we wish to get into the nomadic camel herding life… which is always an option, I suppose.

El Obeid district, Kordofan province, Sudan

For Cde Brian:

This decision was based upon the desire of the Socialist International to build a partnership with your organisation in the search for peace and security in that region of the world, so crucial to global stability. The International, as a movement for peace, recognised in this decision the will of the NDP and its leadership to sincerely engage in this quest, as has indeed been evident over the last thirty years.

Along with this, the Socialist International wanted to encourage the development of multi-party democracy in Egypt by expanding relationships in that part of the world, as democracy is for our movement a fundamental pillar upon which to secure the rights and freedoms of our citizens and to achieve social and economic progress.

So, let us get this right: the Socialist International will let any gang of crooks and thugs join just in case they mouth words of peace and love towards others. The reference to “the will of the NDP and its leadership to sincerely engage in this quest, as has indeed been evident over the last thirty years” is  telling. The phrase is drawn from the SI‘s letter of January 2011 to the General Secretary of Mubarak’s vanity party, informing him of the SI decision to expel the NDP from the International. Readers will, of course, notice that 30 years is exactly the amount of time Mubarak was in office. Even in expelling the NDP, SI could not help praise the old crook, Mubarak himself!

If that was not insulting enough for the millions of ordinary Egyptians who had to live under the repression and fraud of the previous 30 years of Mubarak’s rule, SI goes on to sing the praises of the utterly false and superficial “democratic” changes that seemingly occurred under Mubarak’s rule. Whilst fretting over the lack of progress to introduce adequate democratic features to Egyptian society, SI found it within their hearts to comment on:

the hopeful moments which had arisen during the 80s and led to membership of the NDP in the SI and then again in the mid- 2000s when a measure of important internal changes had taken place within the NDP.

So, for SI one of the measures of increased democracy was that NDP officials were not overtly appointed by Mubarak and his clique after a while (well, actually, they were), but had to go through a show of “democracy” before taking up those sinecures and roles in the party apparatus of the NDP. Don’t you feel democracy is safe in the hands of the ever vigilent SI?

Even when SI got cold-feet about associating themselves with one of the most anti-democratic, corrupt and murderous regimes in the entire MENA region, their reasons for the expulsion of the Egyptian NDP were despicable:

The current massive calls being made today by the citizens of Egypt for freedoms and rights point to the dramatic failure of the Egyptian government to deliver to its people and to the failings of the NDP to live up to its promises. The use of violence, with scores dead and injured, is totally incompatible with the policies and principles of any social democratic party anywhere in the world.

A gathering of members of a fully functioning social democratic party

Failure of the government to deliver and failings of the NDP to live up to its promises? Are the SI right in their collective head? The NDP were the “party” of a narrow clique of technocrats, secret policemen and family friends and relations that surrounded the Mubarak clan. The promises made were to this gang of thugs, thieves and murderers – not to the Egyptian people – and on these promises the regime certainly delivered (quite a sizable share of Egypt’s GDP, in point of fact, straight into overseas accounts).

The final sentence of the above speaks volumes for the SI’s rank opportunism” SI had not noticed the use of violence, leaving scores dead and injured, on the part of the Mubarak dictatorship before the January Revolution? Presumably, then, despite all evidence from international human rights organisations, these acts of state terror were compatible with the policies and principles of social democracy?

I ask, because SI seemed quite happy to have the Egyptian NDP Mubarak Party as one of their fold whilst such things went on in Egypt as electoral fraud, massive corruption, illegal arrest and detention, Emergency Rule by the dictatorship, secret service surveillance of the population, dissappearing of political opponents… oh, you know, all the other things generally accepted as being out of kilter with the policies and principles of social democracy. Only when the People rose did the Socialist International change its mind and declare the NDP to be beyond the pale.

Having been caught in bed, snuggled up to a regional dictator, the Socialist International have been keen to distance themselves from the military junta in Egypt, although again in terms so vague that one wonders whether they are just going through the motions. Earlier this month (after remaining almost completely silent on Egypt for the previous months), SI roused itself to issue the following statement:

In response to the escalating crisis, Socialist International is deeply concerned by the situation in Egypt and condemns the repressive methods being used by the Egyptian ruling military against civilian protesters. We have been hoping, as have all Egyptians, to see a new democratic Egypt. As yet, this hope has not become a reality. We stand in solidarity with the Egyptian people who want a swift and peaceful transition to democracy. A fairly elected civilian government should be in place as soon as possible to enable Egypt to move forward as a fully-fledged democratic state.

The statement is full of the usual verbiage from SI about governments breaking promises and not delivering. At least they are siding with the demand that the SCAF junta should go; but given their previous craven support right up to the bitter end for the party of the Mubarak dictatorship, exactly how seriously should Egyptians take SI promises to deliver on anything?

Presently, there are no Egyptian parties that are members, full or otherwise, nor observers of the Socialist International. They cannot be blamed for that, surely.

LabourStart is an online news service maintained by a global network of volunteers which aims to serve the international trade union movement by collecting and disseminating information — and by assisting unions in campaigning and other ways.

So says the blurb, and I believe them. Especially when they organise and campaign for the rights of Egyptian workers. Labourstart point out:

The Egyptian revolution earlier this year provided an inspiring glimmer of hope to finally allow workers to form and join independent and democratic trade unions. But this is under threat. The interim government has passed a decree banning strikes, and is yet to pass a labour law guaranteeing workers their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining in accordance with international labour standards. Such a law would allow Egyptian workers to have a real say in tackling the low wages and abysmal working conditions they face, and hold their government to account.

Labourstart, together with the International Trade Union Confederation are asking readers to bombard the Egyptian state by messaging the regime in Egypt (aka the generals in the Junta) to pass a labour law now.

This appeal can be read and acted upon, here.

As the brutal crackdown against peaceful protesters in Cairo and several other Egyptian cities continued unabated for six days running, the Muslim Brotherhood stayed out of the fray, declaring clearly that it would not join the protests.

In deciding to stay away from these protests, the Brotherhood may have committed its gravest mistake to date. The footage showing a dead protester being dragged by a security officer and dumped near a rubbish heap, appearing on many satellite channels and the internet, has not only shocked and enraged Egyptians, but it has sent them out on to the streets in their thousands to protest against this outrage.

In going out they had no political calculations in mind and no gains to make. They simply wanted their voices to be heard. By staying away, the Brotherhood has sent the message that it rated its self-interest higher than Egyptian blood and its decision has angered many Egyptians, including some of its own members.

While this highlights the rift that has been growing over the past few months between the Brotherhood and a significant segment of the population, it also brings to light the various challenges facing the Brotherhood since the overthrow of Mubarak.

Read more, here

Berchmans is not amused. Naturally. Some people in the comments said nasty things about Shameless’ recent adulation of MB…

This is exactly what the Friend-a-Soldier site does. Discharged Israeli soldiers and Reservists ask us to take their challenge:

Take our challenge – Ask us anything…

We are discharged Israeli soldiers and Reservists who seek to forge personal connections with our neighbors in order to foster mutual understanding and pave the way for a lasting peace. Regardless of your background or political beliefs, we invite you to come talk to us about any topic, no holds barred.  Those who begin a correspondence will receive an answer straight to their email inbox. 

The questions come in from all across the Arabic-speaking world. Some are more pointed and argumentative than others. Together with the responses of the Israel ex soldiers and Reservists, they make up a fascinating window into the region and its actors, as well as augmenting the struggle for peace and understanding.

Behind every uniform is a human being.

CAIRO – “I feel like we fell asleep 10 months ago, and now we woke up and nothing has changed,” said Ahmad Atta, a 31-year-old computer teacher, expressing the thoughts of the tens of the thousands of Egyptians streaming into Cairo’s Tahrir Square even at 2 A.M. on a Thursday. On one of the side streets, the young people trying to stop the police from retaking control of the square were unwittingly shouting a slogan from the Spanish Civil War: “They shall not pass.”

Police and army answer calls for democracy with gas attack on demonstrators

In the center of the square was a carnival atmosphere, with Egyptians of all ages milling around among the hundreds of food vendors. A large group walked around the square shouting “The people demand an end to the bloodshed” and, “In peaceful ways.” A few hundred meters away, on one of the streets leading to the square, hundreds of young people had already prepared Molotov cocktails to lob at the police lined up between the square and the symbol of their control, the Interior Ministry building.

Read more, here.

H/T Gene of HP